Philadelphia Electric May Be Ordered To Treat Water From Mine Pit

April 16, 1986|by DAN FRICKER, The Morning Call

The Delaware River Basin Commission may require Philadelphia Electric Co. to treat water from the Beechwood Pit before it is released into the West Branch of the Schuylkill River for eventual use as coolant at the Limerick nuclear power plant.

R. Timothy Weston, Pennsylvania representative to the DRBC, said yesterday that PE may be required to construct a demineralization plant at the pit in Schuylkill County.

But PE spokeswoman Pat Webster said Limerick will need cooling water from the abandoned mine pit this summer, leavingno time for construction of a treatment plant.

Weston's remark came at the end of a DRBC hearing in Pottstown on PE's request to release up to 350,000 gallons yearly from the Beechwood Pit. In addition, PE is asking to release up to 1 billion gallons yearly from two Tamaqua reservoirs into the Little Schuylkill River.

No date has been set for a DRBC vote on the PE application. The DRBC's next meeting is scheduled for April 29 in West Trenton, N.J.

Under the application, the releases would be made during summer months, when the Schuylkill River's flow falls below DRBC cutoffs for water withdrawals. PE would withdraw the water at the plant to cool Unit 1, which went into full-power commercial operation Feb. 1. The unit uses about 17.5 million gallons of water daily.

However, water in the pit's upper stratum, which PE would pump, contains about 1,700 milligrams per liter of total dissolved solids, mostly minerals. DRBC regulations prohibit water releases when the total dissolved solids exceed the river's average by 30 percent. The limit would be 703 milligrams per liter at that point in the west branch.

As a result of the contamination, the DRBC has rejected two PE applications during the past year to release pit water into the river's west branch.

In the current application, PE is proposing to dilute the pit water by releasing water from the two Tamaqua reservoirs, which contain high-quality water. Release rates would be up to 28 cubic feet per second from the Still Creek and Owl Creek reservoirs and up to 7 cubic feet per second from Beechwood, with no more than 1 billion gallons this year from the reservoirs and 350,000 gallons from the pit.

But the possibility of releasing any water from the pit drew opposition at the hearing.

"Absolutely, the water from the pit is the pits. It's out," said Robert Anthony of Friends of the Earth, an environmental group.

Rita C. Banning, the minority commissioner in Montgomery County, also objected to pumping pit water into the river. "You are putting water into the river that should not go there and I strongly urge the commission to deny any use of Beechwood Pit water," she said.

A spokeswoman for Del-AWARE Unlimited urged the DRBC to order construction of a treatment plant before permitting use of pit water. "Preliminary tests of the Beechwood mine pit water raise concerns about chemical waste contamination, and should be further studied," Mercedes Gallagher said. "PE should have to treat Beechwood water if its discharge would cause a violation of water quality standards."

However, Vincent S. Boyer, PE's senior vice president of nuclear power, said that the water mix could benefit the river. "We believe the present application, proposing a mix of high-quality water from Still and Owl Creek reservoirs with limited amounts of Beechwood water, will not only maintain the water quality of the Schuylkill River, but will improve it under certain low- flow conditions," he said.

Carol Stewart, representing the Water Resources Association of the Delaware River Basin, supported PE's application, citing, among other things, the economics of keeping the plant operating. "It is clearly in the economic best interest of all those served by the Philadelphia Electric Co. that the Limerick generating station continue to operate as near to capacity as conditions will permit," she said.

Boyer said PE would lose $750,000 per day if it had to shut down the plant.